The dangers of a weak bench

So, what else did you expect? We got a few e-mails wondering (or rather, blaming) Joe Torre because he didn't play Bobby Abreu yesterday, and Abreu is starting to get hot. Trust us, that was not what did the team in for yet another game.

First of all, it was Johan Santana pitching. He's like, good and stuff. But more importantly, look at the players who Torre had to trot out yesterday. Given that the Yanks are in a long stretch without a day off, the backups needed to play at some point; why not take yesterday to play the backups against Johan, with whom the big boppers may have struggled against just the same?

Ah, but here's the problem: enter Brian Cashman, who could have cared less about getting a deep bench together. Take Jeter and A-Rod out of yesterday's lineup (they went a combined 1-for-8 anyway, by the way), and the team that played out there may not have competed with the triple-A squad in Scranton. Miguel Cairo at 3B, Melky in center, Kevin Thompson in RF, Andy Phillips at 1B, and Wil "I'm batting .120" Nieves at catcher. We should be surprised that those five guys went 2-for-14 yesterday? Not really.

Sure, this is the American league, and a deep bench is not nearly as valuable as it is in the NL. But come on, man, we saw this coming back in March. We wrote all this before we even saw Jay Greenberg's similar write-up today.

Oh, this ignores that other glaring problem: the bullpen. Pete Caldera covers this issue in his notes column today.

At any rate, it could be another ugly one today at the Stadium; Kevin Slowey goes against Kei Igawa at 1:05. Both pitchers have ERAs above 5.00. The Yanks await the Angels tomorrow night; the All-Star break follows thereafter, and it can't come quickly enough as far as we're concerned.

Also laughable is Ed Price's headline, "Mussina can't put a stop to bad breaks." More appropriate would be, "Mussina can't really put a stop to anything, especially now that he can't even break 90 even though the Yanks are still paying him about $48 billion." Sorry about the dripping, painful sarcasm today; Yanks fans probably need the A-S break as badly as the players do. Anyway, Mike Puma at the Post discusses how Mussina broke down in the seventh yesterday.

A little early at this point, but John Harper ponders where Johan Santana will go -- say, the Yankees? -- after he becomes a free agent in '08. Santana will still only be 29-years-old at that point. But, frankly, we'd rather see a very, very small number of contracts over four years in length for the next few seasons, Johan included. You have to figure, given Zito's horrendous contract, it will take sat least a seven-year deal to get Johan.